


A Crush The Size Of Jupiter

by kotaka_kun



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Breaking Up & Making Up, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Sort Of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-26 01:58:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17132906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kotaka_kun/pseuds/kotaka_kun
Summary: Ten years ago, he’d had a crush on Matt the size of Jupiter, because Matt was hot and witty and funny and secretly a dork and laughed at all of Foggy’s jokes - even the bad ones - and he expressed such genuine shock and joy when Foggy would invite him over for the holidays and sure, yeah, he might’ve been straight, but he was also a Catholic schoolboy and it might’ve resulted in that repression shit, so who knows.And now, ten years later, it looked like the universe was finally out to get him.This was more than humiliating.Foggy wondered if it would be unprofessional of him if he hid under the counter and let Karen handle it.





	A Crush The Size Of Jupiter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sara_wolfe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sara_wolfe/gifts).



The bustle of his coffee shop first thing in the morning usually set the rhythm of Foggy’s day, and today was no different. He had holiday instrumentals playing from his bluetooth speaker stowed away on a high shelf, and the indistinct hum of conversation flowing over it made for a serene atmosphere despite the morning rush he currently faced. They were nearing the tail end of it though - he could tell without checking the time because Karen had just handed him a cup with Brett’s name on it. Brett was always one of the last orders for his early crowd, every day, like clockwork; had been for the last few years, and Foggy knew his order by heart. Could probably make it blindfolded and one arm tied behind his back, too.

Well, actually he’d probably need both arms, but that was beside the point.

"Brett, my man!" Foggy called, putting on a winning smile as he slid a cup across the counter and getting a half-hearted scowl in return as the man shuffled up to get his drink. Foggy knew it was too early in the morning for Brett to make any attempt at being remotely friendly, but he didn't mind. Brett made up for it with the tip he left anyway. "Your coffee, good sir,” he said with a flourish.

"Thanks, Nelson," Brett mumbled as he made a beeline for the door.

"Gotta keep the city's finest properly caffeinated." He saluted,  and Brett looked back at him just so he could roll his eyes at him. Becoming sworn enemies at four years old tended to make a certain degree of theatrics necessary. Grinning, he turned to get back to work, making small talk with each customer as he finished off their drink and handed it to them.

His patrons were mostly regular customers who’d discovered the convenience of getting their coffee from a smaller shop - a smaller shop meant fewer people knew about it, and the less people that knew about it meant a shorter line to wait in during the morning rush. What they hadn’t realized they were signing up for was Foggy Nelson and his motormouth tendencies. There was usually an added bonus of a camaraderie of sorts too. Foggy made it a point to get to know his regulars, and they, in turn, got to know him. And once you knew Foggy Nelson, it was damn hard not to like him.

When the last of the morning crowd trickled out of the shop, he and Karen breathed a collective sigh and took a moment to lean against the counters.

“Pretty busy for a Thursday,” Karen said, redoing her hair as she spoke.

“But a good busy.” Foggy nodded.

He liked to think that he’d done pretty well for himself in the past several years. While this wasn’t the life eighteen-year-old-him might’ve envisioned, he had a livelihood he was proud of, and that was really all he could ask for.

The bell on the door chimed as it swung open and then shut again, and Foggy turned to greet the lucky customer that had just missed the morning crowd... only to find his voice catching in his throat as he realized just who had walked through his door.

In a dapper suit and dark sunglasses, the man held a white cane.

It was Matthew Murdock.

It had to be.

No one else in Hell’s Kitchen could Foggy’s face feel like the surface of the sun while simultaneously wrapping his chest up in an ice cold grip just by the sight of them.

God, it had to have been what, ten years since he’d last seen the guy?

Ten years ago, when he’d had a crush on Matt the size of Jupiter, and young enough to think that maybe, just _maybe_ he had a chance. Because Matt was hot and witty and funny and secretly a dork and laughed at all of Foggy’s jokes - even the bad ones - and he expressed such genuine shock and joy when Foggy would invite him over for the holidays and sure, yeah, he might’ve been straight, but he was also a Catholic schoolboy and it might’ve resulted in that repression shit, who knows.

But then he’d been an idiot, and a drunk one at that, and he’d read all the signs wrong, and he’d confessed his big secret to Matt, and leaned in for a kiss, and... well, at least Matt had let him down gently.

Still, he was pretty sure the nausea he’d experienced in its wake had had nothing to do with the alcohol.

The days that came after had been the worst kind of painfully awkward, and it had almost come as a relief when he’d been called home for a family emergency. The relief had been less prominent when he’d found out that his dad had suffered a heart attack, but the decision to take time off from his education had still been his own. His grand plans of becoming a lawyer could wait. Nelson and Murdock wouldn’t have worked out anyway, not after the stunt he’d pulled.

He hadn’t told Matt why he was leaving, and Matt hadn’t asked, even when he’d come across Foggy packing up the last of his things.

And now, ten years later, it looked like the universe was finally out to get him.

This was more than humiliating.

Foggy wondered if it would be unprofessional of him if he hid under the counter and let Karen handle it.

But of course, the universe couldn’t let that happen. That would be too easy - instead, Karen was excusing herself to the bathroom while Matt made his way up to the counter and Foggy had no escape.

Well, it wasn’t like Matt could recognize him at a glance, he thought to himself. As long as Matt didn’t have an echoic memory or something, he’d be fine.

Not for the first time, Foggy was almost glad Matt was blind.

Back in college, it meant that there was never a risk of Matt seeing the absolutely smitten looks Foggy was sending him. Now, it meant that Matt wouldn’t know that his barista was his weird, creepy, drop out of an ex-roommate.

“Hey, what can I get for you today?”

He didn’t choke, thank goodness for small miracles.

Matt tilted his head to the side, as though weighing his options. Maybe Foggy should offer to read him their menu?

“What would you recommend?”

“Well, I make a mean caramel latte, if I do say so myself.” Foggy found himself saying, his default answer for an often asked question. “If you’re a guy that likes his coffee unsweetened though, our house blend is popular too.”

“I think I’ll try your caramel latte.” Matt said after a moment, giving Foggy the smile that had never failed to make Foggy’s heart melt into a puddle.

“Great,” He probably sounded overly cheery, but if he stopped smiling, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to start again. “Think a medium would be good?” Matt nodded.

“Alright, and can I get a name for your drink?” he asked, pen hovering above the cup’s surface as if he needed it with the store as empty as it was. As if he didn’t know.

And somehow, he couldn’t help but wonder if Matt was aware of the fact, because there was a brief pause, maybe in surprise.

“Matt.”

Maybe Foggy was projecting.

He finished ringing Matt up with minimal conversation, and set about preparing his drink. It didn’t take long with him pointedly focused on making the latte.

“Matt, here’s your drink,” he called and waited as the man made his way over.

“Thank you, it smells great.”

“Yeah?”

Matt hummed his assent. There was a pause, and Foggy assumed that Matt would walk away, maybe thank him quietly as he went, but he didn’t. He just stood there.

"This is probably a strange thing to say," Matt said slowly, lingering at the counter, "But I can't help but feel like I've heard your voice somewhere before."  
Foggy's heart leaped into his throat, and the laugh that escaped him was a strangled one.

"Really?" He tried to sound disbelieving, but he sounded just this side of hopeful, even to his own ears.

"Yeah," Matt said thoughtfully. "But I'm sure I've never been here before, so I don't know where I'd know your voice from."

"Maybe I've just got one of those voices." Foggy found himself saying. Matt clearly didn't remember him as the roommate that had had a crush on him ten years ago, and who was he to shatter that illusion?

If Foggy didn't know better, he could've sworn there was a strange expression that flickered across Matt's face, but it went as quickly as it had come, and Foggy didn't quite know what to make of it.

"Maybe," Matt said, fingers curling around his cup and bringing it up to his lips. "Thank you for the coffee, Mister...?" The question hung heavy before him, and Foggy swallowed thickly.

"You can call me Foggy," he offered tentatively. It wasn't like he was hoping that Matt would remember the name, but it wasn't exactly a common nickname, was it?

"Foggy," Matt said as though he were trying out the feel of the name for the first time.  
Foggy held his breath.

"Thank you, Foggy."

Foggy tried to put on a convincing smile so Matt wouldn’t hear the hurt in his voice.

“No problem. Have a nice day.”

  
He ended up telling Karen about it, and she all but yelled at him for not taking the opportunity that had presented itself. Foggy wasn’t sure if she understood what he was really trying to say, but then again, he wasn’t sure if he knew either.

What’s more was that she wouldn’t stop bugging him for details after Matt had left and the morning crowd died down. He assured her that he was going to keep this relationship strictly platonic, but it didn’t help when Matt came back the following day. And the day after that. And the day after that.

It wasn’t like he was flirting with Foggy, but he certainly did seem to be more interested in the conversation when it was Foggy he was talking to rather than Karen. (This was, of course, merely Karen’s observation, and she wasn’t exactly being objective about it, so it was neither here nor there.)

Nonetheless, Foggy admittedly began looking forward to Matt’s visits. Their banter and the sight of Matt smiling because of some joke Foggy would make was by far the best part of his day, and Foggy knew he had it bad.

It wasn’t hard to start considering Matt a friend again, so it was that much more alarming when Matt came in with a sizable bandage covering his temple, a nasty bruise peeking out from underneath, and a noticeable limp. But when Foggy asked what he’d done to get so banged up, Matt just smiled, shook his head, and said he’d tripped taking out the trash. Foggy chastised him, telling him he needed to be more careful, and that had been that.

Matt started coming in on a schedule that rivaled Brett’s, always with that lopsided sheepish smile for Foggy. He wouldn’t call it catching up because he technically wasn’t supposed to know that Matt was his-roommate-Matt, but hearing what he’d been up to in these past ten years certainly was nice.

Matt had become a lawyer, graduated summa cum laude to boot, and had started up his own little firm in a cramped office space not too far from the coffee shop. It was convenient, he’d said, that a coffee shop as lovely as this was right on his walk to work.

Apparently he was taking on a lot of pro bono cases which somehow didn’t surprise Foggy in the least. They’d always said they’d work to defend justice and all that.

Foggy made sure to be careful with what he shared with Matt. So he told Matt that he’d started working here as a lowly part-timer, eventually rising in the ranks as time went on until the owner had one day approached him with the idea of Foggy taking over. It was never his intention to own a coffee shop, he’d told Matt, but he was happy with what he was doing now. 

He could’ve sworn that Matt gave him a funny look at that - the same one as when he’d asked Foggy about his voice - with his brows pinched ever so slightly and lips pressed into a thin line. 

And then one day, Matt came in looking especially pensive, letting Foggy carry a mostly onesided conversation while he lingered at the pick up counter until he finally spoke.  
"Hey, Foggy," Matt wore a look that Foggy wasn't quite sure what to make of. "I was wondering if it would be... out of line of me to," he swallowed, "To ask for your number?"

What. 

What?

Was Matt actually hitting on him?

Why would he be hitting on Foggy?

Foggy stared at him, mouth gaping for what must've been a moment too long because Matt's ears began to turn pink. "Sorry, nevermind, forget-"

"Hang on, wait, just- wait, let me get a pen, or- or should I put it into your phone for you?" Foggy blurted.

Matt blinked rapidly, and then fumbled for his phone with his free hand.

“Phone would be, uh,” He swallowed, “If you could put it in my phone, that’d be great.”

“Okay, can do,” Foggy said dumbly, taking it from Matt and beginning to punch in his contact information. When he looked back up to return it, he found Matt grinning, and really, Foggy couldn’t help himself. He grinned back.

“So, uh, call me?”

“Definitely.” Matt cleared his throat. “I’ve got to get going now.”

“Have a great day, Matt.”

“You too, Foggy.”

When Foggy turned back around with what was probably the dopiest grin on his face, he found Karen staring with wide eyes and a wider smile.

He rolled his eyes at her.

 

**Author's Note:**

> sara_wolfe, I hope this was to your liking! I'm such a sucker for coffee shop AUs, but I've never actually written one, so this was A Time alskdfjasldkghweflkjadsflk
> 
> I meant for this to be longer - this prompt certainly deserves it - but I wouldn't have been able to finish the full length thing in time for the deadline, so I decided to end it here (for now)
> 
> anyway, happy holidays!
> 
> I am, on occasion, on the hellsite known as [tumblr](http://kotaka-kun.tumblr.com)


End file.
